Thursday, January 10, 2013

January 11 is for milk and puddles

According to several of the Usual Suspects, Friday, January 11 is Milk Day, and there's even general agreement as to why: The first deliveries of milk in glass bottles occurred on January 11, 1878.

Most of you looking at this post are now confused.

Milk was delivered? In glass bottles?

Yes, kids, it's true: Milk didn't always come in waxy cardboard cartons or plastic bottles. It used to come in glass bottles, brought to one's door by the milkman, early in the morning. If you didn't beat the milkman home, you had basically stayed out all night.

More of you may be familiar with one of today's alternate celebrations, National Step in a Puddle and Splash Your Friend Day, although that seems like a mean thing to do to one's supposed friend.

Usual Suspect Punchbowl.com seems to have a better suggestion in National Hot Toddy Day. Perhaps the most famous Surgeon General's report ever was released on January 11, 1964, Smoking and Health: Report of the Advisory Committee to the Surgeon General of the United States. Some of the Usual Suspects therefore proclaim today Cigarettes are Hazardous to Your Health Day.

And on January 11, 1973, Major League Baseball adopted the designated hitter rule for the American League. This marked the first time in history that the American and National Leagues would play by different rules. The linked article from Usual Suspect History.com calls the DH rule "the biggest rule change in major league baseball since 1903, when it was decided that foul balls would be considered strikes." Originally implemented for a three-year trial run, we have now arrived at the 40th anniversary of the DH rule, an innovation (or contagion, depending on your point of view) that has now spread to almost all levels of organized baseball except the National League.